2.83 pages...

The last time I posted I had hit the 50,000 word mark in NaNoWriMo and was fast approaching the end of November with a fair old chunk of story left to write... The larks of a Christmas in retail and the recovery from Christmas in retail have kept me away from the blog, but now I've caught my breath back... I guess you're wondering if I succeeded?

At 10pm ish of 30th November I validated my word count at around 60,025 words, (and here I and the word count widget at the NaNoWriMo web site will have to agree to differ...) with at least 15,000 to 25,000 words left to write to complete the tale... and the Champagne remained unopened...

Although I'd 'won' I didn't feel like I'd really done it as I hadn't actually completed the novel in a month... I'd hit the word count, but not completed anything... And so I kept going. I kept the 1,667 words a day goal and kept up the pace, finishing 'From The Library Of Parker Prentis' on 12th December at a total of 87,470 words written in 42 days...

I was like nothing I've experienced before... That amount of wordage in such a short time and wholely focussed on moving forward, never looking back, never re-reading and never editing... It felt like a blank cheque for creativity, it felt like every excuse to not do something had been taken away and all that was left was the drive to put a world on the page.

So, what worked?

Well, the pep talks from NaNoWriMo made officially registering completely worth it, especially the ones from Chris Baty. Every time he sent a pep talk I felt like part of the community, I felt like a brother-in-arms, I felt like he could feel my pain on the bad days and share my triumph on the good. The last page of his NaNoWriMo support title, 'No Plot? No Problem!' (ISBN 9780811845052) genuinely brought tears to my eyes with its motivational, reach-for-the-stars joy...

The NaNoWriMo sites stat pages for your progress were incredibly motivational too, offering a graph with the ideal word count zooming up the middle. I swear the notion of falling below that word count curve made me break out into a cold sweat... Especially when right next to it, in cold hard black and white pixels were the number of words you needed to catch up to regain your ideal word count... Seriously, a cold sweat... 

But best of all, and I can recommend this to anyone with a short term or long term goal; have a chart on the fridge and buy sticky gold stars... The boxed kit of 'No Plot? No Problem!' (ISBN 9780811854832) came with a month long chart with holes for daily word count and spaces to stick stars or sad faces for FAIL days. Of everything, this fridge display of daily fail or success, on display to anyone who comes into your house, helped me keep track of how well or badly I was doing and shamed me into writing even on the days when the new Assassins Creed game came out and the duvet called to me. I never thought yellow sad faces could chill the very blood in the veins...

And so, what now?

Well, it's been just over a month since I typed the last words of the first draft, eyes full of tears at leaving behind these characters, their world and the whole god-damned glorious experience of it all! And, well, it's probably time to consider editing... So, I'm going to read the whole thing through in the next week or so and then start editing and based on previous experiences, I know I should probably have a deadline and break the whole thing down into daily chunks. I find editing a slower and more complex exercise than writing, so I probably should give myself a couple of months to edit/re-write... It's 150-170 pages depending on formatting which at most brings me to the daily target of 2.83 pages a day...

Oh, here comes the cold sweat again...

Wish me luck and mighty Seshat, make it not shit... Please?

"The time has come," the Walrus said... "Well, almost," I replied...

So... I've woken up with less than nineteen hours until NaNoWroMo with the first line of my novel suddenly stuck in my head... and it's dialogue... and I'm never going to remember it. Is it so wrong to write it down somewhere?

Against all rational and sane thinking I have decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo this year. Last year I considered it but had no concrete idea and felt too net-less to be able to tightrope walk into a 50,000 word novel with no idea of what to write about. This year I hadn't really thought about it yet and then about six weeks ago I had an idea for a short story which was about ink...

The idea had come from my hubby, Frankie mentioning a low budget indie film he'd heard about and had ordered by the same name. The moment he said the word my head filled with images and story elements, but when we watched the film, it was nothing like what I'd imagined... Which is not to say it was bad, because it wasn't - it was possibly one of the best, most inventive low budget, indie movies I've ever seen - so kudos to the writer/director Jamin Winans.

But, I now had a bundle of images in my head of ink; ink staining skin, sentient ink, a crime scene covered in ink instead of blood... I thought it might be useful fodder for a short story or two and then I remembered an idea I'd had a few years ago about a children's school library that had a hidden room full of books. Each book held the trapped spirit of the last person who had read it...

I let it mull and then after a few days I realised this was not a collection of short stories, or even two novellas but one big effing tale just laying there on the writing table of my mind like a big naked grinning Burt Reynolds... And it kept winking at me in a knowing way...

About a week later I signed up for NaNoWriMo and have been making notes on character details, plot elements and mentally pacing the floor anxiously ever since.

I've never done NaNoWriMo before. I don't think I've ever written that much in that time scale ever before.
And I'm not convinced that I can do it...

As 12:01am 1st November approaches I have been swaying from a mildly cocky "I can so do this! I'm going to kick that word count's ass!" to "Oh My God. What have I done? What was I thinking..." etc, you get the idea. I keep half telling myself that it's not too late to gracefully withdraw. But it is. I have to at least give it a try... And shouldn't I be excited about this? The creative abandon, the free reign to let the first draft blow but actually get it down on the page?

And I am, in a kind of I'mgoingtothrowup kind of way.

There are three things that are keeping me going: 1. My hubby may not have signed up on the web site to be humiliated by a global community if he fails, but he is aiming to be writing the 50,000 words with me. Continuing an idea he's been working on, off and on for a year or so, we may even have a word count chart each on the fridge door and housework be damned! So friends be warned, our house is going to be a filth pit of words and forgotten chores for the next month. I only hope the cat can forgive us... Check out his blog to find out more http://autocratik.blogspot.com/

2. A handful of wonderful, brave and talented writers from work are also going to be doing NaNoWriMo this year. I suggested it, so their families and partners may hate me very soon, but by God we're in this together! Fools that we are...
So far the list of these heroes contains: Rowan, Hannah, Sam, Jenny, Ben, Andrea and Jordan.

3. If you're doing NaNoWriMo donate some money to The Office of light and Letters, the charity who run NaNoWriMo, if only because then you will get exclusive pep talk emails from authors but most importantly from the founder Chris Baty. I've had one pep talk from Chris and I think I need to print it out and stick it on the wall because it reminded me what an adventure I'm about to have. Chris's email was like Dr Seuss's "Oh, The Places You'll Go..." Chris, (excuse the first name use but I feel like he's patting me on the shoulder in a reassuring way), takes the fear out of the leap into the unknown by making you realise that anything can happen during the next month... That I may start December with an almost finished novel... A novel of which, not even one word or sentence even existed before 1st November.

Well, except for this one sentence that I'm scared I'm going to forget... It's only 21 words, what's 21 words between friends?

Wow. This is going to be an adventure. This month is going to be memorable.

To everyone out there who's stepping up to the starting line, good luck, keep writing and don't stop. Don't slow down if you're uncertain or look over your shoulder to see who's gaining on you. This is your race and you're doing it to prove that you can. And to have the adventure.

I'll see you during the month.